


Keys

by IT_GIRL_RH



Category: Radiohead (Band)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-16
Updated: 2009-11-16
Packaged: 2018-10-16 12:15:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10571106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IT_GIRL_RH/pseuds/IT_GIRL_RH
Summary: Jonny quietly aches for Thom's attentions, but all Thom wants is to write music.





	1. Chapter 1

 

  
Summary: Jonny quietly aches for Thom's attentions, but all Thom wants is to write music.  
Rating: Adult  
Categories: radiohead slash  
Characters: Jonny, Thom  
Genres: Angst, Friendship  
Pairings: Thonny  
Warnings: None  
Completed: Yes 

 **Updated:** 16 Nov 2009  
 **Disclaimer:** This is fiction. All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement or ill-will is intended.

  


Chapter 1

Everyone had gone home long ago. Except Thom. And except Jonny. Thom hadn't even noticed his friend was still there, perched on a chair in the corner behind him. Jonny watched him through a curtain of dark hair with a small smile tugging at his lips as he listened to Thom work out the beginnings of a song on that battered piano he favored. Jonny covered his mouth with his hand several times to smother giggles when Thom muttered to himself and cursed at his short fingers for hitting the wrong notes or when he couldn't quite stretch his small hands far enough to make the difficult chord changes he wanted. Jonny also found himself covering his mouth with his hand whenever Thom slowly stretched his back and rolled his shoulders, sometimes moving his neck from side to side, making the bones crack loud enough for Jonny to hear them from across the room. But those times Jonny wasn't giggling.

Not too long before, Jonny had walked out with the others leaving Thom in the studio alone hunched over the piano. Thom hadn't even responded when they'd called out their goodbyes. He was in the world in his head and couldn't be bothered. They all knew to leave him be. But Jonny had forgotten his house keys and as he didn't want to try climbing in through the kitchen window again, he had to come back to retrieve them. He was always forgetting something, his head in the clouds, easily distracted from mundane things when music was involved. He had paused outside the closed studio doors when he heard the tinkling of unfamiliar notes inside. He recognized the sacred when he heard it. Thom was working on something new, something unformed and wanted to be alone with it. Jonny knew that. The music, however, already had him fully mesmerized. It was already beautiful despite being so rough. He wanted to see which direction Thom would take it, how he would make it evolve and shift and eventually soar. Jonny bit on his lip and closed his eyes. He should go home, crawl in the damn window and not worry about his keys until the morning. He should not go into that studio... but he did. He slipped in quietly and took up a perch in the back. He listened and waited for Thom to need him, or rather hoping that Thom would need him. That would justify his intrusion.  
 

  
 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

  
Jonny watched and listened intently as Thom played the same section over and over, muttering to himself all the while. Finally Thom stopped and stared down at the keys. He groaned and collapsed forward. His head slammed down onto the piano keys making a cacophony that almost drowned out his shout, “God damn! Motherfucker!”

Jonny couldn’t help but chuckle out loud. He smiled and stood and walked forward, recognizing his cue.

“How long have you been there?” Thom mumbled into the piano keys.

“Not too long.” Jonny lied. “Forgot my keys. Had to come back.”

"We should tie those to you." Thom sat up. He took a deep breath and let it all out in an exasperated rush. 

“It’s new isn’t it” Jonny asked. “It sounds good so far.”

“It’s fucking rubbish. I can’t get it to fucking work. I should fucking go home.” Thom said as his shoulders visibly sank.

Jonny stopped with his knees against the piano bench directly behind Thom and looked down at his friend. Thom looked back and up to him with a frown, the top of his head resting on Jonny's belly. “I fucking suck.”

Jonny smiled and reached out to touch his cheek but patted him on the shoulder instead. “You don’t suck. It sounds brilliant.”

Thom whipped his head back to face the keyboard. He sniffed. “No. It doesn’t. Jon. It sounds… like… arse.” He said in that rather clipped tone he used when he was especially annoyed with himself or with everyone. “It sounds like fucking shite. I can’t fucking play the fucking notes.”

Jonny laid his hands on Thom’s shoulders and squeezed at the tense muscles. Thom immediately tensed up more and squirmed under his grasp. Jonny let his hands drop back down to his sides and frowned. His eyes drifted to the strip of skin exposed just below Thom’s neck. It looked soft and warm. Jonny licked his lips and swallowed. It would probably be okay for Jonny to slide his fingers under the cloth of Thom’s collar and massage his shoulders. It would help Thom relax maybe. “Maybe if you weren’t so tense you could play properly.” He started to raise his hands.

“That’s not fucking it.”

Jonny dropped his hands back down to his sides. “Then what is it?” Jonny pulled his eyes away from Thom’s neck and looked at the piano keys instead. He ran his hand over his mouth.

Thom glanced back at him and sighed. He looked back at the piano keys. “I need… help. I don’t know.”

“Do you want me to stay?”

Thom turned around and looked at him hopefully. “Yeah. Can you?”

Jonny knew he couldn’t stay. He should have left twenty minutes ago, in fact. “Yeah. I have a few minutes, I suppose. What do you need?”

“You." Thom said and Jonny's heart leapt even though he knew better. "I need you.” Thom continued, looking at Jonny with his bottom lip pushed out in an exaggerated pout better suited to a spoiled five-year old child than a grown man. Still that pout always got Thom his way with Jonny. “Will you play it for me while I work out how it should go?”

“Yeah. Ok, Thom.” Jonny replied with out any hesitation. That pout wins again.

“D’you remember how it goes?” Thom started to play it again and hit a sour note.” Fucker!”

Jonny laughed and shoved playfully at Thom's shoulder. “I remember, Thom. Move over so I can play.” He said sitting down and scooching over on the bench.

Thom snorted and scooted to the end of the bench. “How can you remember? I don’t even remember.”

Jonny smiled and laid his long fingers on the piano keys, effortlessly playing the series of chords and notes Thom had trouble with a few minutes before. He turned and looked at Thom while he played. He was going to say something cheeky but just smiled instead.  Thom was grinning broadly while watching Jonny’s hands on the piano. 

“You’re amazing, Jonny.” 

It still gave Jonny butterflies when Thom praised him. He blushed and hid behind his curtain of hair. He smiled and played the section again.

“Oooh! Great, man! Now go back and play that bit but put in this.” Thom said exitedly. He reached over and played two chords before Jonny could move his hands completely away. Thom’s fingers brushed against his and Jonny never noticed the chords Thom had played.

“Play those again, Thom-Thom.”

“Yeah. You’re right. That sucks. Don’t do that.” Thom chewed on his lip for a second, staring at the keyboard like it was going to tell him something profound. Before Jonny could say anything, Thom sat up and reached out to the piano again. “Here. Do this before that bit.” He played a simple progression of notes and Jonny knew immediately that it was the perfect solution. It pulled everything together, and so simply. He stared at Thom in an awed hush. 

Thom was in his own world, looking expectantly at the keyboard and chewing on his bottom lip. His head was bobbing up and down slightly to some silent beat and Jonny knew Thom was already working it all out in his head, the arrangements, and the words, and all of the parts that would make the song whole and complete and probably perfect. Now it would only be the getting it out from the inside of Thom’s head and into the world that would be the tough part. That was like pulling teeth most of the time.

He was still staring at Thom from behind the sweep of his bangs when Thom broke his reverie and suddenly turned towards Jonny with an accusing look and narrowed eyes. “What?” 

“I...I...” Jonny stammered. 

"You're staring."

Jonny felt the color rising in his cheeks as his pulse sped up. “You’re amazing.” He whispered against his better judgement. He tried to drop his eyes but let himself pause too long at Thom’s lips, red and wet from Thom biting at them as he worked out the song. Jonny licked his own lips and let them fall apart slightly as he turned his head and leaned towards Thom, exposing the length of his neck. He felt like he was falling towards Thom’s mouth in slow motion, being sucked forward by the irresistible gravity of Thom’s pillowy lips, even though he hadn't really moved more than a centimeter, maybe less, but he was still closer than he had ever let himself get to those lush lips. He couldn’t stop himself staring at them. He wanted to stop himself. Really… he did… but he somehow couldn’t.  _Maybe if the world stopped_. He thought to himself.  _Maybe then...._

Thom watched Jonny with a curious expression for a moment before swallowing thickly and turning back to the piano. “Try playing it first before you go calling it amazing. It probably won’t work anyway.” He tapped at a couple of keys absently as he waited.

Jonny closed his eyes. He closed his mouth. He swallowed his disappointment and fear and regret like he always did. He turned back to face the piano, took a breath and opened his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Thom looking at him sideways, watching him suspiciously as he chewed nervously on a ragged fingernail. Jonny sighed and spread his long fingers out over the keyboard. He played all of the notes Thom wanted. And tried not to think about anything but the music. Because that was all that Thom wanted from Jonny and Thom always got his way.  
 

  



End file.
